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'Sir Garfield Edward John Barwick' AK, GCMG (22 June, 1903 – 14 July, 1997) was the Attorney-General of Australia (1958-61), Minister for External Affairs (1961-64) and the seventh and longest serving Chief Justice of Australia (1964-81). He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1964 and a judge of the International Court of Justice (1973-74)^[1]

Contents

Career

References

Bibliography

See also

External link

Career

Barwick was born in Sydney, New South Wales, and attended Fort Street High School. He graduated from the University of Sydney with the University Medal in law. His Methodist family was of modest means. A good student, he studied law and was admitted to practice although, on his own later admission, he suffered severely in financial terms during the Great Depression. He practised as a barrister in many jurisdictions, achieving considerable recognition. He was briefed in many of Australia's defining constitutional cases (e.g., the Airlines case, the Bank Nationalisation case). He was knighted in 1953.
A famous example of his astute advocacy involved thirteen Malaysians sentenced to death who appealed to the Privy Council. Twelve retained Barwick who duly found a technical deficiency in the arrest warrants and secured their freedom. The last, whose counsel was not so thorough, was executed^[2].
Barwick was elected to the House of Representatives as the Liberal member for Parramatta at a by-election on 8 March, 1958, and re-elected in the general elections of 1958, 1961 and 1963.
During his period in parliament he served as attorney-general and minister for external affairs. As attorney-general he promoted acts amending the ''Matrimonial Causes Act'' and the ''Crimes Act''. He established a model for restrictive trade practices legislation. He led the Australian delegation to the General Assembly of the United Nations for its 15th, 17th and 18th sessions.
On 27 April, 1964, he was appointed chief Justice of the High Court of Australia. He was instrumental in the construction of the High Court building in Canberra. It is said that he had intended the poor accessibility of the new facilities to prevent the then elderly and wheelchair bound Justice McTiernan from continuing to sit on the court.
He controversially advised Governor-General Sir John Kerr on the constitutional legality of dismissing, in certain circumstances, a prime minister who could not obtain supply. He is therefore often seen as responsible for the dismissal of Gough Whitlam, as it was Barwick’s advice on which Kerr partly relied as a basis for the dismissal.
He retired from the bench in 1981.

References

1. High Court of Australia
2. The International and Comparative Law Quarterly, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Jul., 1968), pp. 782-783

Bibliography

★ ''A Radical Tory: Garfield Barwick's Reflections and recollections'', Federation Press, Sydney, 1995, ISBN 1-86287-236-8.

★ ''Barwick'', Marr D., 2nd Ed, ISBN 1-74114-720-4

See also

★ Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act

★ Australian constitutional crisis of 1975

External link

★ http://www.ag.gov.au/agd/WWW/attorneygeneralHome.nsf/Page/Media_Releases_1997_July_1997_Sir_Garfield_Barwick Attorney-General’s Department (Commonwealth of Australia) Sir Garfield Barwick]